A Failed Animated Batman Pitch Paved The Way For A Classic Cartoon

Back in the '80s, TV networks made a habit of making kids' cartoons based on grown-up movies. Tim Burton's dark and twisted "Beetlejuice" was one that received a Saturday morning spin-off, but it came at a cost. In order to get the rights from Warner Bros. Television, Nelvana Limited — one of the production companies behind the "Beetlejuice" series — had to give them "Batman."

"We had a 'Batman' development deal that had stemmed from two years earlier," Michael Hirsh, Nelvana's co-founder, recalled in an interview with Cracked. "We had developed it too, but the network we had developed it with wasn't buying in, and I'd shopped it around to the other networks and they'd passed as well. Nobody was expecting the 'Batman' movie, which hadn't yet come out, to be a big hit. So we were basically told, 'You can have 'Beetlejuice.' Tim has chosen you. But we have the final choice, and we're not going to give it to you until you give 'Batman' back.'"

The folks at Nelvana ultimately agreed to the deal and the rest is history. The deal worked out for everyone at the end, as Nelvana produced and even won a Daytime Emmy for "Beetlejuice," and Warner Bros. Animation made the celebrated "Batman: The Animated Series." Still, in an alternate universe where Hirsh and co.'s "Batman" project came to fruition, what would it look like?

Details about Nelvana Limited's unmade "Batman" series are shallow at best, but some information about the project has been revealed throughout the years. Slated to be called "Batman and the New Robin," it would have entailed the eponymous Caped Crusader teaming up with Jason Todd as his sidekick following Dick Grayson's departure.

What's more, "Babylon 5" creator J. Michael Straczynski was hired to write a bible for the show and come up with some concepts for episodes. The pilot purportedly involved Batman recruiting Todd after being impressed with his decision to not join a gang — even though the young rascal showed his mischievous side by letting down the Batmobile's tires.

The series would also have featured a host of "Batman" villains, including popular foes like Joker, Poison Ivy, Riddler, and Penguin. However, Straczynski also threw in some deep-cut characters, such as Ventriloquist and Catman. Straczynski wasn't short on ideas, but as history would show, "Batman and the New Robin" never came to be. But as interesting as it is to ponder the "what-if" of it all, there's no denying that what we did get at the end remains one of the best animated shows of all time.